


You Burn so Bright You can Blind Somebody

by heartmeetsbreakx



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, YouTuber!Liam, alternating pov, background Larry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26802820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartmeetsbreakx/pseuds/heartmeetsbreakx
Summary: LiamVlogs: New video up now!! This week, I talk about Flynn Rider, memes, and Fortnite!Liam hits “send” on his tweet, and closes his laptop. He just posted his latest vlog, and is ready to relax and watch movies with his flatmate and best friend, Zayn, for the rest of the night.ORLiam is a popular YouTube vlogger and sometimes Zayn is his cameraman. Liam's subscribers start analyzing their relationship and it changes everything.
Relationships: Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Comments: 30
Kudos: 122





	You Burn so Bright You can Blind Somebody

**Author's Note:**

> Hiii! So this is only my second fic and I HAD to write it after Liam started his YouTube channel. I took a lot of inspiration from his actual videos, but I changed things around a little bit to suit the story. :) 
> 
> Thank you so much to my dear, dear friend Mandi for being the best cheerleader, yelling at me to work on this, and also beta reading for me. I love you<3 
> 
> Please be nice! If you like it, please leave a comment! And feel free to come talk to me on tumblr! I'm heartmeetsbreakx over there, too. :) 
> 
> Title from Flight of the Stars by ZAYN. :)
> 
> You can reblog my fic post on tumblr [ here.](https://heartmeetsbreakx.tumblr.com/post/631001082886258688/you-burn-so-bright-you-can-blind-somebody-by) Thank you!

* * *

Liam

_LiamVlogs: New video up now!! This week, I talk about Flynn Rider, memes, and Fortnite!_

Liam hits “send” on his tweet, and closes his laptop. He just posted his latest vlog, and is ready to relax and watch movies with his flatmate and best friend, Zayn, for the rest of the night.

Liam started a YouTube channel two years ago when he was on summer holiday before starting university, just as something fun to do and a way to keep a video diary of his time at school. Liam loved being in front of the camera, but he also just liked having a record of everything. When he was young, he had a relative tell him to take pictures of everything because you never know what could happen. So Liam’s always recorded everything, you can almost always find him with a camera in his hand. When he got his first video camera, he would always have it on, recording himself and his friends. He loved being able to look back on all the silly things he and his friends would get up to.

When he first started, he would talk about the stupid stuff he got up to with his friends, his assignments, TV shows he was watching, or whatever else he found interesting. He didn’t always post a lot of personal details, like the city he lived in or where he went to school, but he liked that his channel kind of chronicled all the friendships he’s made since starting university. Whatever it was he was doing, he was apparently pretty good at it, because his channel started growing and he got more and more subscribers.

Liam still isn’t sure how his viewers found his videos in the first place, but he’s glad they did. They’re a really cool group of people, always really responsive, and they like to give him ideas for what to do in the next video. He’s gone from doing just your typical vlogs about his life to reacting to viral videos, doing collabs with other channels, and whatever else they ask. He’s not a huge channel, but he makes enough money from ad revenue and the odd brand deal that he can afford a good place for him and Zayn to live while they’re finishing school, and he doesn’t have to keep a “real” job on top of his studies.

“Zayn, you wanna watch a movie?” Liam asks, as he makes his way into the living room, where Zayn is flipping through one of his textbooks.

“Yea, wanna grab some sodas and I’ll order some pizza?” Zayn replies, tapping open his phone to place an order at their regular pizza place.

Liam comes to the room and settles on the opposite end of the couch Zayn is sitting on, handing Zayn a bottle, and grabbing the remote to put on a movie.

“I’m kind of in the mood for Deadpool, I know we’ve seen it a hundred times but…” Liam says, trailing off, knowing Zayn will understand.

“Perfect. You know I’m always ready to watch Deadpool.”

The boys get started watching the film, quoting along to their favorite parts. About twenty minutes in and there’s a knock on the door. Liam gets up to grab the door and pay the delivery person, while Zayn goes into the kitchen to grab some napkins, plates, silverware, and more drinks.

“I still can’t believe you eat your pizza with a fork and knife,” Liam says, laughing.

“You know I hate when my fingers get dirty! I eat everything with a fork and knife,” Zayn pouts, rehashing the same argument the boys have had every time they get pizza together.

The first time they had pizza together, Liam remembers asking Zayn about it, and Zayn went on to explain that he started eating everything with a fork and knife because he would often work and eat at the same time, and the silverware prevents his fingers from getting dirty and staining his papers or getting oils on the keyboard of his computer. It’s been a running joke ever since.

Once the pizza is finished, Liam curls up on the couch and grabs a blanket, offering half to Zayn. Liam gets comfortable, tangling his legs with Zayn’s, like he does every time they watch TV.

Since he’s seen the movie so many times, Liam decides to check his social media accounts to see how his subscribers have reacted to his latest video. The feedback is all pretty positive, with the occasional comment saying they don’t like something. Usually, superficial stuff like his hair is too long or too short or he should or shouldn’t shave. Usually, he just ignores it, but he’s been worrying about his hair for while now because he’s been growing it out. He starts to fidget a little bit, messing with his hair. He’s pulled back to the present when Zayn puts a hand on his ankle to calm him, probably noticing Liam getting a little agitated.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn met Liam during their first year of university and became fast friends. They were definitely the closest in their group of friends, and where one was the other was sure to be close by. That’s why, after their first year they decided to get a flat together.

When Zayn first met Liam, he was immediately entranced by his sweet demeanor and his expressive brown eyes. Zayn thought that the more he got to know him, the easier it would be to ignore how attractive he found Liam, but he was wrong. It’s like the better he got to know Liam, the more attractive he became. It’s been difficult trying to ignore his feelings, but eventually he gave up trying to fight it. Two years later, and he’s still secretly in love with his best friend. He’s pretty much decided that Liam will never know, and he’s okay with that. He’s still grateful to have Liam as a best friend.

See, Zayn doesn’t want to risk ruining it. He loves their easy affection, and how Liam seems to be a little more tactile with him than anyone else. It makes him feel special, like Liam knows Zayn is different from his other friends. And he’s afraid that if Liam found out, he’d stop, because he wouldn’t want to lead Zayn on anymore. So Zayn keeps his feelings hidden.

When the movie ends, Zayn excuses himself to his room. He has an exam the next morning and wants to get to bed, but he still has a few things to do before he can sleep.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Zayn goes into his room, strips down to his boxers, and climbs into bed. He has post notifications on for when Liam posts a new video, but he doesn’t like to watch them in front of his best friend. He doesn’t know how to control his face, and he knows he looks like a lovesick fool when he watches Liam talking about what he got up to during the week. He might have been called out by his other best friend Harry for his “Liam face.” He gets himself comfortable, puts on his headphones, and presses play.

Zayn can’t help but giggle while he watches Liam’s video. He’s just so...cute. One of the things Zayn loves so much about him is that you’d never expect how adorable he is when you look at him, because he’s so athletic and muscular. But anyone that spends more than 5 minutes with him has no choice but to fall in love with him because he’s just so sweet.

Liam starts talking about how he doesn’t like the way he smiles in certain pictures, and Zayn just shakes his head. His favorite pictures of Liam are the ones where he’s smiling so big his eyes are practically closed and his mouth is opened like he’s mid-laugh. When he’s finished watching the video, he scrolls to the comment section to see what kind of things Liam’s viewers are saying.

Zayn goes through the comment section, and likes to give a “thumbs up” to all the nice comments. No one knows he’s Liam’s best friend - he’s made some appearances here and there in Liam’s videos and his stories, but no one knows his YouTube account. He doesn’t make his own content, so he can fly under the radar. Liam doesn’t even know his YouTube account, so if Zayn leaves nice comments on all of Liam's videos, especially complimenting him on something he knows Liam was worried about...well, Liam doesn’t have to know.

* * *

Liam

Liam is reading through the latest comments on his YouTube video and trying to decide what to do for the next one. He usually likes to talk about what he got up to during the week, react to some things his viewers suggest, and try to do some sort of fun segment.

He decides to put out a question on his Twitter, asking for some ideas. While he waits for some suggestions, he decides to go through his mentions. He likes to see what his viewers think, to make sure they’re happy with his content, usually stopping to like, reply, or retweet anything he thinks is funny. Sometimes, he saves their comments to react to in his videos.

He favorites some funny videos and he’s asked to do a cooking segment. Liam watches cooking shows with Zayn all the time, one of their favorites being Chopped, so he thinks this will be a lot of fun. Now he just has to pick a recipe.

After spending some time browsing the internet, he decides he’s going to try to make eggs the way Gordon Ramsay teaches. He realises he might need some help for this segment, because it’s going to be too difficult to film with just his tripod.

_Liam: Zeeeeeee, can you help me film something for my video this week?_

While Liam waits for Zayn to answer, he watches a few videos of Chef Ramsay cooking eggs, and takes a few notes on the technique. According to the chef, the eggs should be mixed and not whisked. He also says to cook the eggs on high heat and then remove from the heat for 10 seconds, then back to the heat for 30 and continue until the eggs are cooked. It should only take about 3 minutes to complete, so he thinks its the perfect recipe for his channel.

_Zayn: Yes, Leeyum. What are you planning on doing?_

_Liam: Cooking!_

_Zayn: Oooo. Sounds fun. You know my schedule, just let me know when!_

Liam loves that he never feels judged by Zayn. Of course, his other friends know about his videos, but he would never ask them to film something with him. They’re never mean or anything, he’s just more comfortable being himself with Zayn. There’s something comforting about Zayn that lets Liam let down his guard and just be...instead of second guessing himself or monitoring everything he does.

Since Liam likes to get his video filmed as early in the week as he can so he has enough time to edit, he figures he might as well start filming some of his video now. He gets his stuff set up in the living room, and starts talking about some reactions from his video from last week. Apparently, he should watch Tangled; he’s been told it’s a “crime” he hasn’t seen it yet, according to a lot of comments. Maybe he’ll suggest it the next time he and Zayn don’t feel like watching a comic book film.

While Liam’s filming, Zayn comes home. As soon as he opens the door, Zayn peeks in and sees Liam is filming, so he waves. Liam stops talking and greets him. He loves how considerate Zayn is, but he can always edit it out if he wants to. Zayn heads into his room. He doesn’t usually hover when Liam is filming, even though Liam says it's ok. Zayn tells him he wants to be surprised when he watches the vlog after it's posted, but Liam’s not sure if Zayn ever watches them. He thinks he does, but they’ve never really talked about it.

When Liam finishes up this part of his filming, he goes to find Zayn.

“Hey, Zee. You wanna grab takeaway? Or I can cook something?”

“Whatever you want. You sure you wanna cook tonight and then again for your video?” Zayn laughs.

“Shut up, you know I cook just as much as you do,” Liam laughs. “But I think we might do takeaway…I feel like I want Thai food.”

“Uh huh...sure Liam,” Zayn chuckles, shaking his head.

“What! I just remembered I’d been craving it! Be nice, Zayn!”

“I am nice! Go order it, I’m going to get some more work done. You know my usual order.” Zayn rolls his eyes, as he gets back to work.

“Love you, Zee! I’ll let you know when it gets here.” Liam singsongs on his way to the kitchen to find the takeaway menu from the fridge.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn is putting the finishing touches on one of his papers when Liam pokes his head in and tells him the food is there. Zayn closes his laptop and heads out to eat.

“Did you want to eat at the table or on the couch?” Liam asks Zayn, as he’s unpacking their food.

“How about the table tonight? If we sit on the couch, I’ll never get up and I have more work to do tonight.”

“Alright, sounds good. Can you grab some silverware?”

Zayn watches Liam settle down at the table, and goes to grab his seat. They don’t eat at the table together often, usually opting to eat while they watch a movie together, but Zayn loves when they can just sit and talk without the distraction of the TV.

Zayn zones out a little bit, admiring how Liam’s face lights up when he starts going on about something he’s passionate about, and how animated he gets explaining it. His heart clenches with affection, getting lost in Liam’s excitement.

“Zayn? Did you hear me?” Liam asks, pulling Zayn out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, I zoned out for a second. What’d ya say?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just saying there’s this new documentary on Netflix about aliens I was thinking we could watch this weekend.”

“Yea, that sounds great.” Zayn smiles, going back to his food.

“Hey, Zayn?”

“Yea, love?”

“Do you think my hair looks okay? I kind of want to grow it out a little bit, but I’m not sure if it’s okay. I kind of get mixed comments from people…” Liam trails off, sounding worried.

“Li, I think it looks great. I’ve wanted to see your curls come back since you showed me that picture of you when you were 16.” Zayn replies. In all honesty, Zayn loves Liam’s hair long. He thinks it makes Liam look so handsome and soft, and he may or may not think about carding his fingers through it every time they’re watching TV together.

“Thanks, Zee. I’m just worried, I guess. You know how some people can be. I don’t...I don’t know. I’m afraid people will be mean, since it’s different to how I normally wear it.”

“Babe, you always look great, ok? And yea, it looks different, and I know the mean comments are gonna suck, but you know for every mean one, you’re gonna have like twenty nice ones. Besides, do you like it long?”

“Yea, I do. I just...you’re right. I’m just worried over nothing.” Liam says, shaking his head.

“No, it’s not nothing. I understand why you’re worried.” Zayn reassures him.

Liam smiles at Zayn, and goes back to his food.

When Zayn and Liam first met, they were having one of those deep talks you have at night, with all the lights off; the kind where you talk about things you never really like to discuss in the daylight, and Liam told Zayn about how he was picked on when he was young. Zayn thinks it’s even more amazing that Liam went through that and still puts himself out there and is the brightest person he’s ever met.

When the boys finish their food, Zayn heads back into his room to finish up his work. Before he leaves the kitchen, Liam stops him and pulls Zayn into a hug. Zayn knows it’s Liam’s way of thanking him for understanding his need for reassurance. Zayn squeezes Liam back as tightly as he can.

After working for a couple more hours, Zayn turns out the light, and crawls into bed. He’s exhausted, but his mind won’t stop replaying the conversation he had with Liam earlier that night. He hates that some stupid kids in school made Liam so self conscious. He just wants Liam to see that he’s perfect just the way he is.

* * *

Liam

Liam is on his way out of his last class when he decides he wants to film the cooking segment, if possible. He has a light workload on Wednesday, so he’s finished by noon. He just has to check with Zayn and make sure he doesn’t have plans yet. He usually doesn’t go out during the week, preferring to get as much done as possible, but Liam will have to text him if he isn’t home when he gets back.

Zayn is going to school to be an english teacher, but he also loves art so he decided to take an art minor as well. Liam always admired how dedicated Zayn was to his coursework. One of the reasons they became such good friends was because they both tried to be as disciplined as possible about their work, choosing to stay in and do work over going out with their other friends.

Liam is mentally running through the list of ingredients he needs for his cooking segment trying to figure out if he needs to stop at the store before he can film. He’ll need eggs, butter, salt, pepper, and chives. He’s fairly certain that they have butter, and he knows they definitely have salt and pepper, but he’s going to need to stop at the store for eggs and chives.

Since it’s a nice day, he decides to walk to the grocery store. It’ll be a decent walk so he decides to take out his headphones and listen to the latest album he and Zayn have been obsessed with. By the time he gets to the store, he’s in an even better mood, smiling to himself remembering how the last time he and Zayn listened to this album the two boys started dancing around and singing obnoxiously loud just to make each other laugh.

That’s one of the things Liam loves about being with Zayn. When people first meet him, they think he’s so serious and subdued, but Liam knows he’s got a silly streak a mile long, and will do anything to make his friends laugh; you just have to be lucky enough to be called a friend first. When they first met, Liam was a little intimidated by Zayn, but they quickly gained each other's trust and now he's easily Liam’s favourite person.

Liam grabs everything he needs from the store and starts his trek back home. He decides he’ll probably shower when he gets home, so he can have clean hair and a fresh outfit since he’s been in a hat all day and he’s a little bit self conscious about hat hair. He’s still worried about how his hair looks, but Zayn said it looked okay so if Zayn likes it, then he trusts him.

When he gets back to their flat, he tries the door and it's unlocked so he knows Zayn must be home. He heads into the kitchen, leaving the bag of groceries on the counter. There’s no reason to put them away when he’ll just be taking them back out right away anyway.

He’s on his way to the bathroom to shower when he stops by Zayn’s room to make sure he’ll be available to help him film in about an hour. His door is ajar, so he peeks his head in.

“Zee?” Liam asks, pushing the door open just a little more.

“Yea?” He answers, not looking up from the picture he’s sketching.

“Are you gonna be able to help me film in like an hour? If not it’s ok...I can try to set up my tripod or maybe if you have time another day…” He trails off, not wanting to bother Zayn if he’s too busy.

“Yea, yea. Of course, I could do with a break from this anyway.” He smiles.

“Thank you! I’m just gonna hop in the shower,” Liam replies, heading into the bathroom.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn is putting the finishing touches on his sketch, when his stomach starts to growl. He knows Liam is cooking in a little bit, but he doesn’t even know what he’s making so he figures he's due to go get a snack.

Zayn wanders into the kitchen, and starts digging around in the cabinet for something to eat. He ends up just opting for an apple, so he heads over to the sink to wash it off. He turns to go back toward his room, looking down at his phone to check the time, when Liam comes out of the bathroom.

Zayn isn’t paying attention, and walks straight into Liam. Liam, who is still dripping wet with a towel around his waist. Yes, Zayn spends the majority of his week with Liam, and he’s seen him in various states of undress hundreds of times...but he usually expects that. He wasn’t prepared to see a glistening Liam wearing nothing but a towel.

“Zayn, you ok?” Liam asks, sounding concerned.

“Yea, yea. Sorry. I got distracted looking at my phone,” he blushes, turning to go back into his room. He needs to gather his composure before he can watch Liam cook and be charming in the kitchen for the rest of the night.

“No problem,” Liam chuckles. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready. I gotta get dressed and I’ll get all my equipment. Then I’ll call you?”

“Yea, that sounds good.” Zayn mumbles, closing the door. He flops down on his bed, throwing his arm over his eyes and groaning. “Calm the fuck down, Zayn. He’s your best friend. Relax,” he chastises himself, apple thrown on the bed forgotten.

A little bit later, Liam calls Zayn out into the kitchen, letting him know he’s ready to start. Zayn takes a deep breath and makes his way into the kitchen. Liam changed into a pair of grey loose fit jeans, hemmed just long enough they touch the ground, no shoes, and topped with a white and black striped t-shirt, with a few smaller stripes of other colors.

Now, there’s nothing particularly special about Liam’s outfit, but Zayn can’t help but find it so….cute. He looks so comfortable and he loves that Liam decided to leave his hat off for this. Sometimes, Liam will wear a baseball cap or even a cowboy hat of all things. Zayn isn’t particularly a fan, preferring to see how long his hair has gotten, the curls finally coming in.

“So...do you need me to do anything special?” Zayn asks, wandering over to pick up the camera Liam has ready on the counter.

“Nope, just kinda follow what I do. I’m gonna talk my way through what I'm doing, so you don’t have to respond to me or anything. If you do, I can always edit your voice out if you want...but it's up to you.”

“Okay. I’ll probably just watch, but just...let me know what's in there when you review the footage.” Zayn replies, still fiddling with the camera.

“Thanks Zee. And if you could kinda just...make it look like if you were watching? Don’t be in one spot, but kinda follow me around the kitchen, look into the pans, ya know...that kinda thing. You know how the cooking shows do it.” Liam directs, checking around the counter and making sure all his ingredients are out and he has enough clear space to work.

“What are you cooking anyway?”

“Eggs. The Gordon Ramsay way!” Liam laughs, with a huge grin.

“Well, what are we waiting for! Get cooking, chef.”

Liam starts cooking, and Zayn does his best to be quiet. It’s not that he’s a super private person or anything. Liam has mentioned him in previous videos, and there’s been video clips and things included here and there; especially at the beginning when Liam was using the videos just to keep as a video diary.

As Liam continues cooking, Zayn tries to only watch through the camera lens, so he can make sure he’s filming what Liam is actually doing and not accidentally lose track of what's going on. While he’s standing next to Liam, trying to get some side shots, he gets a little bit distracted by the way Liam’s jeans fall around his ankles. Zayn is not into feet! He just happens to think Liam looks adorable and is hopelessly endeared by the baggy cuffs and how sometimes he stands with one foot on top of the other.

He quickly tries to right himself, and continues on recording. Zayn almost loses it when Liam starts impersonating Gordon Ramsay. He has to stifle a giggle, because Liam does that impression every single time they watch Chef Ramsay on television.

Liam finally finishes cooking, gives a final outro to the cooking segment, and asks Zayn to quit recording. “You wanna taste?” He asks, holding up a plate of perfectly scrambled eggs, topped with chives.

“Sure” Zayn agrees, expecting Liam to hand him a fork. Instead, Liam puts more eggs on his own fork and brings it up to Zayn’s mouth, feeding him. Zayn is too shocked to do anything other than open his mouth and accept the bite.

“It’s really good,” he says, blushing because as close as he and Liam are, something about being fed by him was more intimate than he expected.

“Thanks...Do you want me to make more? Are you hungry?”

“Yea, that would be great. I’ll get some toast and grab some sausages.”

“Perfect. Breakfast for dinner,” Liam laughs, going back to cooking and preparing another batch of eggs. “Do you want chives and everything, too?”

“Yea, just how you made those is perfect.”

Zayn busies himself making the toast and sausage, keeping an eye on Liam so they don’t bump into each other. They don’t normally cook at the same time, and it feels nice. They’re comfortable around each other and the domesticity of it sticks in Zayn’s chest. For a minute, he lets himself pretend that he’s not just cooking with his best friend, but that they were something more.

“Couch tonight?” Liam asks once everything is finished.

“Yea, wanna put on that alien documentary you were telling me about?”

Liam’s face breaks out in a grin and he shakes his head excitedly, heading into the other room to get the show queued up. _Wow, he really is just the cutest thing._

* * *

Liam

It’s Friday afternoon and Liam is going through the footage Zayn taped. He’s got to admit he’s really pleased with how it came out. Zayn did exactly as Liam asked, making it feel like he’s in the kitchen with the viewer watching him cook. It feels more personal than a cooking show does, so he’s glad he asked Zayn to help him instead of just setting up a couple tripods and splicing together different angles.

As he’s watching back the footage, he can hear one point where Zayn has to stifle a giggle. He knew breaking out the Gordon Ramsey impression would make him laugh, so he had to do it. He decides not to edit the sound, since you can’t really hear it. He only noticed because he remembers looking at Zayn when it happened.

Liam finishes editing that piece of the video, and adds it into the rest of the stuff he recorded earlier in the week. He usually posts his videos on Sundays, so he still has a couple days, but he likes to make sure it's ready to go on time. While he waits for the video to render, he decides to pull out his notebook and see if any inspiration strikes.

Liam’s been working on a song for an assignment for a while, playing around with a few different ideas. The problem is that Liam feels more comfortable making melodies than lyrics. He’s not really sure what kind of song he’s aiming towards. The assignment wasn’t super specific, so he’s free to use whatever comes to him...he’s just having writer's block.

Instead, he just starts doodling some eyes from memory. He doesn’t think he’s as talented an artist as Zayn, even though Zayn’s constantly telling him not to discredit himself...but he loves drawing. Sometimes drawing will help get his creative juices flowing for writing as well, so he’s just drawing to see what comes of it.

“Li, you home?” Liam hears Zayn yell from the living room.

“Liam!” Louis yells, bursting into Liam’s room, and jumping onto the bed. “It’s Friday! Let’s go to the pub! I feel like some greasy food.”

“Okay, yea. I’ve got nothing important to do, and I can’t get this stupid song written,” Liam complains, closing his notebook.

“What are you trying to write about?” Louis questions, scrolling through his phone, probably texting the other guys to meet up soon.

“Ugh, I don’t know,” he groans, getting up to find a pair of shoes in the closet. “Are we going now?”

“Yea, Zayn just wanted to drop his stuff off and pick you up. We’ll meet the other boys there.”

Liam and Louis head out of the room, Louis walking into the living room to wait on the couch. Liam stops in Zayn’s room.

“The footage came out really well. Thanks again for helping me.”

Zayn looks up from where his head was in his closet, looking for the hoodie he wanted to throw on. He knew he would get cold on their walk back to the flat, even if it was comfortable out now. Plus, the air conditioner in the pub is always on too high.

“Oh, good. I was worried I was too shaky or something.” He replies, grabbing the red hoodie he was looking for.

“Nah, it was great.” Liam smiles, leading both men out to the living room. Liam grabs a set of keys, his wallet, and his jean jacket. “Come on, Lou. Let’s go. I’m hungry.”

“Finally! Haz and Niall are already there, they got our usual table.”

* * *

Zayn

“Do you guys want another round?” Liam asks, getting up from the table.

A chorus of ‘yeses’ erupt from the table, so Liam heads up to the bar to grab some more beer for the group.

Zayn watches Liam make his way over to the bar and try to get the bartender’s attention. It doesn’t take long, and soon enough Liam is leaning on the bar giving his order. Zayn is keeping an eye on the bartender, she’s leaning a little too close for Zayn’s liking, but he doesn’t really have a right to care.

“What are you looking at, Zayn?” Harry smirks, leaning into Zayn’s space.

“What? Nothing, just seeing if Liam needs any help carrying the drinks over.” Zayn excuses, looking back to the table.

“Sure…” Harry says, joining back into Louis and Nialls argument about some television show Niall has started watching.

Zayn looks back up to the bar, and sees Liam still up there with the bartender. She’s taking her time getting their next round. Zayn can see her putting her hand on Liam’s arm and leaning closer, whispering something into his ear. Liam laughs, but Zayn can’t tell if it's because he’s flirting back or because he’s just genuinely the nicest person ever.

“Zayn, you’re practically burning a hole in her face.” Harry laughs.

“Shut up.” Zayn grumbles. “I was just wondering what was taking so long. I’m thirsty.”

“Right. You’re not subtle, Zee. I think the only one that can’t see you’re in love with Li is him.”

“I’m not...and good. Even if I was, he wouldn’t be interested anyway.” Zayn argues.

“What? Why?” Harry asks, shocked.

“I don’t know...we’re best friends, and I just don’t think he’d ever see me as anything else.”

“I think he might be a little bit oblivious, but it's not because he’s not interested…” Harry says, trying to reassure Zayn.

“It’s fine. I’m gonna go help him bring the drinks back.” Zayn gets up and marches over to the bar.

Zayn squeezes next to Liam, interrupting his conversation with the bartender.

“Zayn!” Liam yells, throwing an arm over Zayn’s shoulder when he sees him.

“Li, you were taking forever,” Zayn laughs, eyeing the bartender, who is looking between the boys curiously.

“Sorry, I was talking to Danielle here. She was telling me about this new club that’s opening up.”

“Oh, was she?”

“Yea, we should all go. It sounds like it’ll be fun!” Liam says. Zayn watches Danielle shake her head and walk away, apparently coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t getting anywhere with Liam.

“Yea, maybe. Let’s get back to the table.” Zayn says picking up two of the pint glasses, and heading back. Liam follows closely behind. As they approach the table, Harry catches Zayn’s eye waggling his eyebrows. Zayn rolls his eyes and sits back down, ignoring Harry.

When they stumble back home a few hours later, Zayn can’t sleep. He’s thinking about what Harry said. He sounded so shocked that Zayn would think Liam would never like him, but he just can’t wrap his head around Liam ever seeing him as anything other than his best friend. Zayn came to terms with it a long time ago, that he’d never get to be with Liam. He’s okay with it, as long as he gets to keep Liam as his best friend.

He’s just a little worried now...is he that obvious? If everyone else can notice that his feelings for Liam are written all over his face, it's only a matter of time before Liam figures it out too. He just hopes when that happens, Liam lets him down gently.

* * *

Liam

Liam posted his latest YouTube video a few hours ago, so he’s going through some of his viewers’ reactions. Everyone seemed to really enjoy his cooking segment, since he’s getting a lot of comments about it. As Liam’s looking through the comments, he’s seeing a lot of people saying the same thing.

_**shrimpstan** 10 minutes ago_

_DID YOU SEE HOW HAPPY HE LOOKS WHEN HIS FRIEND COMES IN? HOW CUTE!!_

_**clownfishrevolution** 9 minutes ago_

_I KNOW! Are they dating? 👀_

_**nambydog** 11 minutes ago_

_who is behind the camera?? does liam have a gf? or boyfriend? he looks like he loves them so much! 🥰_

_**Micah Garner** 9 minutes ago_

_!!!! his face lights up when he looks at them!!! 🥺 did you hear that giggle when he started doing his ramsay impression!!!_

_**Jadene Guy** 20 minutes ago_

_petition for liam to have his friend in the video!! do a q &a together!_

_**Keeley Merit** 5 minutes ago_

_yes!!! I need to know who this mystery person is! do you think theyre in his old videos??_

_**Jadene Guy** 4 minutes ago_

_Idk...time to investigate!! 👀 👀 👀_

For some reason, everyone is talking about how Liam is reacting to Zayn. Huh...Liam continues reading through his comments, and seeing much of the same thing, over and over. He’s never really thought about having Zayn come on his channel, since he’s usually pretty against it, preferring to just help Liam where he can, but maybe he should bring him in...it seems like something his viewers want.

Liam’s going through some more comments, and finds one from someone who comments on all of his videos. They always say something nice, so he tries to leave a like on them to show he appreciates what they have to say.

_**alazymink** 1 hour ago_

_Your hair is looking great! The length looks good on you!_

Liam smiles to himself, grateful he seems to have received mostly positive comments on his video this week. He figures he should get finished with the course work that’s due this week, so he gets out his books and starts reading.

He can’t help but let his mind wander to the comments everyone was leaving....Zayn is his best friend! It’s no surprise that he’s excited when he comes home, and they’re just really close so that has to be why he’s so happy to see him. Yea, that’s all it is.

Liam finishes up his reading for the night, and heads into the kitchen. He can smell Zayn cooking something, and he’s starving.

“Hey, Zee. What are you making?” Liam questions, coming up right behind Zayn.

“Jeez, Li. You scared me!” Zayn yells, jumping.

“Sorry! I didn’t know you were so concentrated!”

“I guess I just zoned out. I’m making biryani. I figured since it was Sunday, I had some extra time to prepare it. Do you want some?”

“Yes, please! I’m so hungry.” Liam replies, mouth watering. He loves when Zayn cooks. They usually trade off cooking, since it's cheaper than takeaway every night, but it’s not often that Zayn will make such a time consuming dish. They both usually like to stick with easy dishes, like pasta or store bought pizzas.

Zayn finishes cooking, spooning some food into two bowls for them to take into the living room, while Liam grabs them each a bottle of water. They settle in on the sofa and Liam pulls up Disney+.

“I was thinking we could watch Tangled. I never saw it, but my viewers tell me I look like Flynn Rider, and I didn’t even know who that was. I want to tell them I finally sat down and watched it.” Liam explains, pulling the movie up and getting comfortable.

“Yea, I saw that. Did you know when they designed Flynn Rider, they actually had a meeting to create the most attractive Disney prince?” Zayn tells him, digging into his food.

“No way! Well, I guess it’s nice that people think I look like him then.” Liam replies, blushing. He takes a bite of the biryani, and has to stifle a moan, it's so good. When Liam first had Zayn’s cooking, it was too spicy for him, but Zayn told him if they were going to be best friends, he had to get used to it. Eventually, Liam was able to handle spicy food almost as well as Zayn was.

 _LiamVlogs: Just sat down to watch Tangled with Zayn! He tells me he’s the most attractive Disney prince...can’t believe you all thought I looked like him!! Thank you_ 🥺

Liam sends out a tweet, letting his followers know he’s watching Tangled. He’ll check out the replies later. He doesn’t want to be distracted while he watches the film.

He really enjoys the movie. He laughs at Maximus the most, and he might get a little teary eyed when he thinks Flynn died, but Disney makes him emotional. Luckily, Zayn doesn’t notice when Liam inconspicuously wipes away a tear or two.

When the film ends, the boys head to bed. Liam isn’t ready to sleep yet, so he opens up his Twitter app and starts reading the replies to his tweet. Everyone seems excited that he watched the movie, so he thinks he might do a review of it in one of his upcoming videos.

_**@velcroluna** who’s zayn?_

_**@rocketmutant** is zayn the same guy that recorded your last video?_

_**@fruitkits** is zayn your boyfriend?_

Since he got so many replies asking about Zayn, Liam figures he might as well just tell everyone instead of responding to someone individually, so he crafts a tweet to send out letting everyone know about his best friend.

 _LiamVlogs: Since everyone is asking, Zayn is my best friend! And yes, he helped me film the last video._ 😊

He scrolls through his feed a little more, liking and retweeting some posts he finds funny. After 15 minutes, he decides he might as well quit procrastinating and go to bed. He has class in the morning, and wants to get up early enough to go for a run before his 9 am.

* * *

Zayn

“Fuck…” Zayn mutters the next morning. He woke up and saw Liam’s tweet, so he decided to investigate why Liam explained who he was. Now, he’s found himself in a blackhole of Twitter threads. Liam’s viewers have put together a ton of “evidence” to prove that Liam has a secret relationship with the person that helps him film videos sometimes, and after last night’s tweet, they’re convinced that the person is Zayn.

He spends so long going through the tweets he’s lost track of time, and he’s almost convinced himself that Liam really _does_ have feelings for him. Once he closes out the app and clears his head, he comes back to his senses. _No, it’s not possible. Liam has never shown interest in me before. They’re just bored._

Zayn is getting ready to head out for class when Liam comes back from his run. He’s momentarily caught off guard by the way the sweat makes Liam’s skin glisten. His eyes catch on how the light hits the birthmark on Liam’s neck. Zayn has always loved that birthmark, but right now he’s distracted by the thought of licking it.

“Hey, Zayn.” Liam says, taking out his headphones and toeing off his shoes.

“Morning,” Zayn mutters, looking for something to grab to eat on the way to class.

Liam is wrapping the headphones around his iPod and tucking it into the pockets on his shorts, heading into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water when he turns back to Zayn. “Do you think you’d wanna do another video with me?”

“Uh, what kind of video? Like, what do you need me to do?”

“Well, I thought it might be fun to do a Q&A, and a bunch of my viewers were asking about you so I thought it might be cool if you could make an appearance.” Liam explains, looking at Zayn, eyes big and hopeful.

“Uhm, I don’t know, Li. I don’t really like being on camera, but I’ll think about it, ok?” Zayn says, hesitating to agree. He doesn’t want to let Liam down, but the thought of being on camera makes him a little bit nervous.

“Thanks, babe.” Liam smiles, heading down the hall to take a shower before class.

Zayn grabs his jacket and heads out the door. He has one of his Lit classes first thing in the morning, which is always interesting enough to keep his focus, so he’s glad he can put all thoughts of Liam, his viewers, and the thought of appearing in front of the camera to the back of mind until later.

By the time lunch rolls around, Zayn is starving, so he texts Harry and asks if he wants to meet him at the campus café for a quick meal. When he arrives, Harry is already seated so Zayn grabs his favorite wrap and a Gatorade, and joins his friend at the booth.

“Hey, Zayn! What’s up?” Harry says, taking a bite of his sandwich. Zayn watches as some of the filling spills out the bottom back onto his plate.

“I need advice.” Zayn replies, taking a sip of his purple Gatorade.”So, Liam asked me to be in a video with him, but I don’t know if I want to. I don’t mind helping him, ya know? But usually I’m just behind the camera or there's a glimpse here or there, so I’m a little bit nervous to actually be filmed.”

“Okay, so tell him you’re uncomfortable with it, he’ll understand.” Harry replies evenly.

“Well, that’s not the only problem. Liam and I watched a movie last night, and he tweeted about it because he’s mentioned it in his videos before, and he mentioned my name in the tweet. Then his followers started asking who I was and he told them I was his best friend and that I filmed his last video with him.”

“Okay…” Harry says, urging Zayn to get to the point.

“So..then I was going through a bunch of Twitter threads and they’re all asking him to have me in a video _and_ they have all this proof that Liam has been in a secret relationship this whole time, and they think it's with me! They had all this proof and clips of him talking to me, trying to prove some crazy story that I’m his boyfriend!” Zayn finishes, exasperated.

Harry tries to stifle a laugh, “So what you’re saying is..they think you and Liam are together?”

“Yes!”

“I fail to see how this has anything to do with you being on camera?” Harry says, like Zayn has no idea what he’s talking about.

“Because! If I do the video with Liam, then all his viewers are going to be analyzing _everything_ we do, and I don’t think I can be under a microscope like that! I’m scared if I do it, then they’ll point it out, and then Liam will notice and it’ll ruin our friendship! At least now, they’re only talking about him!”

“Look, Zayn. I think you’re being ridiculous. The video might be fun! You know Liam would appreciate you doing it with him. You’re the only one he lets near those videos with him, and he wants you in one now. Plus, what if his viewers pointing out what they see actually gets Liam to see what's right in front of him!” Harry says, always a romantic.

“Ugh, I don’t know. I’m gonna have to think about it. He usually likes to get this stuff done earlier in the week, so I’m gonna have to figure it out sooner or later.” Zayn huffs, resigned. Harry has a point, but he’s a little bit biased since his relationship fell into his lap so easily. He and Louis were practically together from the moment they met, there were never any questions or confusing signals. Zayn has never had that experience.

“Give it a shot. If you really don’t like doing it, just ask Liam to cut your part out. You know he’d do whatever you asked.” Harry says, gathering up his garbage and standing up.

“Yea, you’re right,” Zayn sighs, following Harry out. They toss their trash and head back into the center of campus. Zayn isn’t ready to talk to Liam yet, so he figures he’ll go sit in the quad with his sketchbook for a little while and try to clear his head.

He’s thinking about everything he and Harry talked about, and he’s trying to figure out what the risk would be to be in the video. He’s worried about Liam figuring out how Zayn feels, but Harry is right...it could pay off. But does he want to risk potentially ruining their friendship?

After an hour or so, Zayn starts to get too chilly being outside, and decides to head back to his flat. He hasn’t completely made up his mind, but he can’t put off going home for forever.

When he finally gets home, Liam is sitting on the couch watching television and working on some course work. He looks up and puts his books away when he sees Zayn come in.

“Zayn!! Did you decide if you want to do the video with me? I haven't asked for any questions yet, but I want to tell them you’ll be in it so they can send questions for us both.” Liam explains, sounding excited.

Up til that moment, Zayn wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but seeing how excited Liam was at the prospect of them doing the video together, he just can’t let him down. He’s never really been able to deny Liam anything.

“Yea, I’ll do it.”

“Thank you! I’m so happy you said yes! They’ve all been asking about you, and I really want them to get to meet you.”

Zayn can’t help but smile at how happy Liam is that he said yes. He just hopes he doesn’t regret it.

* * *

Liam

Since Zayn agreed to be part of his Q&A video, Liam has been trying to figure out the best way to go about getting the questions together. He’s never had any of his friends be such a big part of one of his videos, and he wants Zayn to enjoy it. He’s done collaborations with other YouTubers before, but they’re always super scripted and he doesn’t want that. Liam can act, but it's different acting like a character. Trying to act like a scripted version of you and your best friend is totally different.

Liam decides the best thing to do would be to ask for some questions on his social media ahead of time, and then hopefully he’ll have enough that if he or Zayn doesn’t like some of the questions, they’ll still have enough to make a decent length video.

“Hey Zayn!” Liam yells, knowing Zayn is just in the bedroom next to him.

“Yea?” Zayn asks, coming into Liam’s room.

“Do you think we can film tomorrow? I’m gonna ask my viewers for questions today, and hopefully they’ll send enough that if we don’t like some of them, we just don’t have to use them.” Liam explains, hoping Zayn agrees.

“Yea, I’ll be home at the same time as usual. Do you think they’ll send enough questions for me to answer? Like, am I going to even...be in the video?” Zayn asks, a little hesitantly.

“I mean, I’m sure they will. After I tweeted about you last night, they kept asking about you. And, after my last video they kept asking who filmed it, so they definitely seem interested!” Liam explains, trying to make sure Zayn doesn’t feel weird about being in one of the videos.

“Oh, uhm. How much do you usually look at what your viewers say?” Zayn asks, sounding nervous.

“Depends. When I’m asking for a video idea or recommendations on what to watch, I usually go through my mentions. And I usually go on the comments under the videos a few hours after they’re up, just to see how they’re reacting to it. Otherwise, I don’t really look myself up or anything...why?”

“Just wondering. I guess I’m just worried.” Zayn explains.

“Aw, Zee. Don’t be worried. My viewers are awesome. They’re really funny and are usually really nice.” Liam tells him. He doesn’t want Zayn to be worried about his viewers’ reaction to him. He knows they’ll love Zayn, who wouldn’t?

Liam remembers the first time he met Zayn. They’re both kind of quiet to begin with, but Zayn had the most expressive eyes and Liam always loved the way they would twinkle whenever he laughed. Once his viewers saw Zayn, and got to see how charming he was...they’d keep asking for him back. Plus, he thinks they’ll like their dynamic.

“Okay…” Zayn says, turning around to go back into his room.

Liam starts crafting the request for questions for his social media. He figures he’ll post it now, give his followers a chance to send some questions, and then he can go through them later to pick out the ones he likes.

_LiamVlogs: I’m doing a Q &A tomorrow with a special guest! Reply with your questions for me and my best friend, Zayn! _

Liam copies the same request to all of his social media, then puts the phone away and starts on his work. He’s still trying to come up with the song he has to write. He picks up his guitar and starts messing around with some chords. While Liam has always taken easily to creating melodies, he remembers a line from a Disney movie he used to watch as a kid. “Melody first, my dear, and then the lyrics!” So he figures he’ll at least try to get some sort of melody started and then hopefully inspiration for lyrics will strike after.

He’s tinkering around on the guitar for a little while, and finally starts getting something he really likes. It’s a slower melody, but he really likes it. It’s simple, a little moody, but pretty. After a little while longer, he’s played through what could be an entire song, so he grabs his phone and records what he has so far.

Once he’s actually gone and written the lyrics he can actually record it with the proper software. For right now, a quick recording to make sure he doesn’t forget the sound is good enough. After he’s satisfied, he decides to go and check his social media to see if he’s had any responses.

So far, he’s got a pretty decent response. There’s a lot of the typical questions you might expect, so he goes through and takes some screenshots so he can add the images into the videos when he’s editing the video. As he’s weeding through the questions, there’s a few questions specifically for Zayn, so he saves those too. He also gets one question quite a bit, so since it’s such a popular question he figures he’ll have to answer it.

After he’s gone through and picked out around 20 questions, he figures that’s good enough and decides it's time to look for something to eat. He’s hoping there’s some leftovers from last night, so he heads into the kitchen to search for some food and then maybe he’ll convince Zayn to watch another episode of the alien documentary series they started.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn is looking for something to wear. He’s supposed to be filming the Q&A video with Liam, and he’s stressing about what to wear. He doesn’t normally put too much thought into his every day outfits, but he wants to look presentable. He knows that Liam’s viewers are going to be critiquing everything about him, so he really wants to look good.

He spends much longer than he’s willing to admit before he picks out a pair of black skinny jeans with rips in the knees and an olive green sweater with fabric detailing on the shoulders. It looks casual enough that he doesn’t appear to try too hard, but dressed up enough that it shows he put in some effort. He knows Liam’s viewers are all pretty much strangers, but he feels this weird urge to impress them. Like he needs their approval or something, it's oddly daunting.

He heads into the bathroom to mess with his hair, making sure that his quiff didn’t fall too much after a day in class. Once he’s satisfied, he takes a deep breath and stares at himself in the mirror. Logically, he knows there’s nothing to worry about. He’s literally just going to be sitting next to Liam and answering some questions. It’s everything after that has him so nervous. What are Liam’s viewers going to think? What if they figure out how he feels about Liam, since they seem to look at everything so closely. What if they hate him? There’s so many things he’s worrying about, but he’s doing this for Liam. He takes a deep breath and heads out to the living room to wait for Liam to finish setting up.

Liam has decided to wear another one of his striped shirts and a pair of straight leg jeans, sans hat. Zayn feels better that Liam has gone for one of his nicer shirts than just a plain t-shirt, so he doesn’t feel so out of place with the outfit he chose.

A few minutes later, Liam is directing Zayn to sit on the couch and checks how he fits in the frame, to make sure they’ll both be centered and focused correctly. Once he’s satisfied, he starts explaining to Zayn how the video is going to go.

“Okay, so I went through and saved a bunch of questions I got from my viewers. There’s some basic ‘get to know you’ type questions, some fun ones, whatever I thought was interesting. You don’t have to answer all of them, if they’re just for me or something. But you’re my best friend so you can probably answer all of these about me anyway, so if you want to throw in a funny story, go ahead. I mean, I want this to be more of a conversation between us than just us staring into the camera answering questions, ya know?” Liam explains.

Zayn is listening intently, and just nodding along to what Liam’s telling him. He gets this concentrated look on his face when he’s telling Zayn what he wants. He takes his channel so seriously, and Zayn loves that about him. He never does anything halfway. When Zayn nods to show his understanding, Liam gives him this blinding grin and he can’t help but give one back.

“Ready?” Liam asks, huge smile still plastered on his face.

“Yepp.” Zayn says, rubbing his hands on his thighs and giving himself a little shake to get rid of his nerves.

Liam hits the record button, double checks everything is set up, and goes to take his seat next to Zayn.

“Hey Everybody! Welcome back to my channel! Today we’re doing a different video than usual...a Q&A! You’ve asked, and you shall receive. Plus...we have a special guest! My best friend and flatmate, Zayn!” Liam says, introducing his viewers to Zayn.

Liam continues explaining how he asked his viewers for questions, and telling a quick story about how Zayn got involved in the Q&A. He’s telling the viewers that Zayn has helped him record videos in the past, that he’s the only friend he’s ever asked to help him, and that since they asked so many questions about him, he wanted Zayn to come on and meet everyone.

“So before we get into the questions, let’s talk Tangled!” Liam exclaims. “I really liked it. I guess Flynn was inspired by Han Solo and Indiana Jones, so if you guys say I look like him, I’ll take it! Plus, Zayn tells me he’s the best looking Disney prince!”

Zayn blushes, as Liam goes on to explain how much he’s always liked Disney, and how much he enjoyed the film. He even shows off an old picture of Alice in Wonderland he drew his sister, Nicola, for her birthday one year. It’s a little beat up, but he was excited she found it and sent him a photo.

“Okay, so I guess we will get started with the questions! The first question we have here comes from Amanda. ‘How long have you guys known each other?’” Liam reads, looking at Zayn to indicate he wants him to take the question.

“Uh, we met a couple years ago, our first year of uni. We lived in the same building, and Liam complimented my t-shirt. Then he invited me over to see his comic collection, and we’ve been friends ever since.” Zayn explains, remembering their first interaction and smiling fondly.

“Yepp, he couldn’t get rid of me. We got into a debate about who the best Batman was, and we still haven’t settled it. Put your favorite Batman in the comments, and maybe he’ll finally come to his senses that I’m right when you all agree with me.”

“But you can’t tell them who to pick! I’m keeping an eye on you!” Zayn interrupts, moving his pointer and middle finger between his eyes and pointing at Liam, in the universal sign of “I’m watching you.”

The questions proceed much the same way, recounting basic things like favorite movies, colors, majors, dream vacations, and other basic trivia. As they’re answering the questions, Zayn tries not to look at Liam too much, but sometimes when they get talking he knows he can get a little caught up. Whenever Liam starts talking about his favorite things, he always goes off and tells little stories, making it difficult to look away.

As Zayn is watching Liam talk, it occurs to him once more that he’s lucky he gets to see Liam like this every day. His viewers get the video version, the kind Liam edits and splices together, but Zayn gets this unfiltered, unedited version of Liam every day. Of course, he wishes he has a little more of Liam, but he doesn’t think he’ll ever get enough. He catches himself staring a little too much a few times, but he’s hoping it isn’t too noticeable.

“Ooo! This is a good one! Kalee asks ‘Zayn, do you watch Liam’s videos?’” Liam asks, excitedly looking at Zayn waiting for his response.

“Yea of course I do! I watch them all…” Zayn says shyly. He’s never told Liam he watches all his videos. He assumed he knew, because they’ve talked about how the videos turn out sometimes, but he never actually told him.

“Aww Zaynie! I didn’t know you watched all of them!” Liam says, pulling Zayn into a hug. Zayn feels his cheeks heating up in a blush. It’s not unusual for the two boys to show affection, but he feels a little bit on display. He playfully pushes Liam off him, and sits back up fixing his sweater.

“Okay, so a bunch of you asked this question, so...you all want to know if I’m single...and I bet once you all see Zayn you’ll want to know about him too. So...yes I am single! I’ve been single for a while. I’m not the type of person that bounces from relationship to relationship, I want them to mean something, so I’m not quick to jump into anything. The last time I was in a relationship was a little more than a year ago, or something.” Liam says, turning to Zayn.

This is one of the questions Zayn was worried about, but at least they didn’t ask if he and Liam were dating. He was worried that they might be too straightforward. It occurs to Zayn that maybe they did ask that, but Liam didn’t want to have to address that, so he picked the wording himself, but as long as he doesn’t give himself away, he’s okay with this question.

“Uhm, yea I’m single too.” Zayn says, not sure if he wants to elaborate. Liam gives him a nudge, urging him to talk a little more. “The last relationship I had ended pretty quick, it was probably like the end of last semester. He was transferring to a different school, and we weren’t serious enough for long distance so...we’re still friends though, I guess. Good terms and all that…” Zayn says trailing off.

“Okay, and I think that’s it! You guys know where to find me on social media! All the links are below. Zayn doesn’t have any public social media, but if you guys want to see more of him, let me know in the comments and maybe I can convince him to get on here with me more. And don’t forget to like and subscribe! I love you guys!” Liam says, huge grin on his face.

Liam and Zayn wave to the camera, and Liam stands up to turn the recording off. Zayn takes a deep breath and relaxes into the couch.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he says, relieved.

“It was great! Do you want to watch back any of it after I’m done editing? This one should be kinda easy! I’m just gonna cut out some of the pauses and stuff and maybe if it's too long some of the questions, I’m not sure.” Liam says, starting to clean up the equipment.

Zayn takes a minute to think about it. On the one hand, he might want to make sure there’s nothing super embarrassing in the video, that he doesn’t want on the internet. But on the other hand, he doesn’t really want to watch himself back. He never could understand how Liam could watch himself long enough to edit and post his videos.

“No, it’s ok. I trust you. Just make sure I don’t do anything stupid,” Zayn says, running his fingers through his hair.

“Zee, please. I’m sure it’s fine,” Liam says, rolling his eyes fondly. “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Yes, please!” Zayn answers, relieved. He grabs his favorite pillow and blanket and settles into the couch, Liam curling up on the other end, settling in for the rest of the night.

* * *

Liam

The following Sunday, Liam is reading the comments on his newly posted video. As expected, everyone loved Zayn. Liam can’t say he’s surprised. He remembers when he first met Zayn, he immediately knew he had to get to know him. When he first invited Zayn over to his room, he was captivated by Zayn’s eyes. When he laughs or is enjoying himself, they get this sparkle that is so enchanting, so difficult to look away from.

Liam is reading through all the comments, and he’s seeing more and more comments that are analyzing his and Zayn’s relationship. He figured that when this happened on his last video, it was because they didn’t get to see them interact, so he really didn’t think they would have anything to read into when they saw him with Zayn, except the comments prove otherwise.

Comment after comment, Liam is seeing his viewers pointing out evidence that he and Zayn are more than just friends, except they aren’t. He’s not sure what they’re seeing, but he decides to at least see what they’re looking at even if he finds the idea far-fetched.

As Liam starts to read through the posts and follow the time stamps, he starts to question himself. He’s going back and watching the times that are being pointed out. Maybe they’ve got a point…

_**Haniya Driscoll** 1 hour ago_

_OMG! Liam at 2:32 🥺 I can’t!!!_

_**donnaiguana** 54 minutes ago_

_I know! He looks so smitten!_

_**Haniya Discoll** 50 minutes ago_

_he says he’s single but I think he just doesn’t want to say??_

_**breadblazing** 43 minutes ago_

_yea there has to be something going on! did you see that look at 6:50?_

_**Kaitlyn Silva** 20 minutes ago_

_When he pulls Zayn in for a hug did you see how red he got? 😭 they’re so cute!!!_

_**Meera Brown** 15 minutes ago_

_😭😭😭😭 so cute!!!_

The comments continue on in a similar fashion, calling out the smallest of moments between the boys. After reading through enough of the comments he just decides to watch the entire video over again but he’s going to pay attention to how he and Zayn interact, and maybe he can figure out what they see. After he’s finished watching the video, he thinks he needs a second opinion.

_Liam: Louuuu! I need advice. Can I come over?_

_Louis: Yea, Haz is working on some group project so it's just me, what’s up?_

_Liam: I’ll explain when I get there._

When Liam gets to Louis’ flat, he flops down on the couch, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Okay, what's wrong, Li?”

“Do you think I’m in love with Zayn?” Liam yells, startling both himself and Louis.

Louis looks shocked for a minute, before his face breaks out in a knowing grin.

“Well, Liam, my dear..why do you ask?” Louis says, trying to hold back a laugh.

“Ugh. Just...read these comments and then watch the video.” Liam says, throwing his phone at Louis, already opened to his latest video.

“Is this about the Q&A you and Zayn did?” Louis asks, curious.

“Yes. Just...watch it and tell me what you think.” Liam tells him, laying back on the couch and throwing his arm over his eyes.

Liam doesn’t want to see Louis while he watches the video so he tries to keep himself occupied by looking around the house and getting up to fix him and Louis each a cup of tea. When he comes back, Louis looks like he’s ready to burst but is afraid to talk about it.

“What?” Liam asks, getting a little worried the longer Louis doesn’t say anything.

“Well, do you want me to be honest?” Louis asks carefully.

“Well obviously!” Liam says, losing patience.

“Yes,” is all Louis says.

“Yes? Yes what?” Liam all but yells.

“Yes, I think you’re in love with Zayn.” Louis says calmly. He watches Liam for a second, and since it’s clear he isn’t going to respond, continues. “But..I would’ve said that before you showed me the video with those comments.”

Liam just continues to stare at Louis.

“Look, Li...I...think you have to figure it out for yourself. Why do you think you haven’t dated someone since you and Sophia broke up?” Louis explains.

“Well, I don’t know. You know I don’t like to jump into things, I’ve told you that.” Liam says, starting to get a little frustrated.

“Yea, but when’s the last time you even showed any interest in anyone?” Louis asks.

“I don’t know...it’s not like people are throwing themselves at me!” Liam says, agitated.

“Last week, at the bar? That bartender was trying to pick you up. Haz told me, because he and Zayn were watching since you took forever to bring our drinks back,” Louis tells him.

Liam doesn’t respond, just gives Louis a blank look and takes a long sip from his cup.

“Just..think about it, Li. Who is the first person you want to tell news to?” Louis asks him.

“He’s my best friend! Who else am I going to tell?” Liam replies, like the answer is obvious.

“Okay, and who do you talk to first in the morning? Or last at night?”

“We live together!” Liam exclaims.

“Okay, fine. What about...if Zayn was to start dating someone tomorrow, and you couldn’t spend as much time with him, how would you feel? Do you remember how you felt when he was dating Brad?” Louis asks carefully.

Liam mulls that over a minute before answering. Liam didn’t like Brad. He never treated Zayn right. He remembers how Zayn would complain because he used to think all the movies they watched were stupid, and he never valued any of Zayn’s art. So, it’s not his fault that he didn’t like him.

“That’s not fair. None of you liked Brad!” Liam replies.

“Okay fine, but what if Zayn started dating his dream guy tomorrow. We all get along, he’s handsome, he’s nice to Zayn. Then what?”

Liam doesn’t reply, because he doesn’t know what to say. Would he be upset? Maybe. He’d definitely miss Zayn. But he’s used to spending so much time with him. That doesn’t mean he’s in love with him.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, because it’s not like Zayn likes me like that anyway.” Liam finally relents.

“Maybe. But maybe he does. Think about it. I’m not going to speak for him, but I think you can figure it out. Your viewers figured out how you feel by watching this video right? You have ton of footage of you guys together, I know you do. When we first started hanging out you used to have that camera on all the time. Go watch it. You might see something you didn’t notice before.” Louis tells him, picking up their empty tea cups and bringing them to the sink.

Liam gets up and heads out the door, thinking about what Louis said his whole way home. He definitely has a lot of footage he can look through, and maybe it’ll help him figure out what’s going on. As he’s walking home, he’s still thinking about Louis’ hypothetical question. What would he think if Zayn started dating someone tomorrow? Just thinking about it makes a knot form in his stomach.

After the conversation he and Louis had, Liam doesn’t think he can hang out with Zayn tonight, so when he gets back to the flat and Zayn is cooking, he makes an excuse that he’s not feeling well and goes straight to his room. It’s not that he’s uncomfortable with Zayn now, but he doesn’t want to second guess everything he does or says or every casual touch, so he just...puts it off until he can figure himself out.

Liam is laying in bed, tossing and turning for so long trying to fall asleep that he gives up. Luckily, he has headphones he can plug into his keyboard, so at least he can work on his music assignment for a little bit. He starts working on the melody he started last week, and makes a few tweaks. He doesn’t have any lyrics yet, but he thinks the music is really starting to come together.

* * *

Zayn

It’s been a few days since Liam’s video was posted, and Zayn has hardly seen hide nor hair of Liam since. Zayn first noticed that he hadn’t really seen Liam on Tuesday afternoon. Monday, he was working in his room when Liam got home, so he hadn’t paid any mind when Liam didn’t stop in and say hello, but by the time Tuesday rolled around, Zayn realized he’d barely laid eyes on Liam except in passing.

When the video had first been posted, Zayn didn’t want to look at it. He’s usually quick to watch all of Liam’s videos, but he didn’t want to watch this one. Part of it was because he was a little wary of watching himself back, but there was a bigger, louder part that didn’t want to see what the viewers were going to say.

Zayn has been debating all day if he wants to see what people are saying. He doesn’t know if maybe what they said is the reason why Liam is avoiding him. He’s worried that Liam figured out how Zayn feels about him, and he doesn’t know how to let him down without ruining their friendship, so he’s just going to avoid him forever.

Eventually, Zayn opens up the YouTube app, goes to the video, and goes directly to the comments. He sees thread upon thread of comments talking about the boys together. He feels like he’s been splashed with a bucket of cold water. _This is why Liam won’t speak to me. He found out._

_Zayn: You busy? Need to talk._

Zayn taps his fingers on the back of his phone, impatiently waiting for a reply. After the longest 60 seconds of his life, his phone finally buzzes with an incoming message.

_Harry: Come over. It’s just me and Lou._

_Zayn: Be right there._

Zayn gets to Harry and Louis’ flat, toes off his shoes, and flops into the armchair.

“So….what’s going on, Zaynie?” Louis asks.

“Liam is avoiding me.” Zayn mumbles, covering his eyes.

Louis and Harry share a look, when Harry asks, “Why do you think he’s avoiding you?”

“I don’t think he is. I know he is. And it’s all because of that stupid YouTube video.” Zayn says, absolutely miserable.

“What? Why?” Harry asks him, sounding confused.

“Because. All of his viewers commented on the video, talking about how we’re in love with each other, and how we look at each other, and blah blah blah, and now he won’t even talk to me! He obviously figured out that I’m in love with him, and he doesn’t know how to let me down, so he’s avoiding me, and eventually he’ll stop speaking to me altogether, and then I’ll have to move out.” Zayn replies, growing more and more frantic as he goes on.

“Zee, I don’t think Liam is going to stop talking to you. You’re his best friend.” Harry says, trying to calm Zayn down.

“Yea, his best friend who’s in love with him! Who he doesn’t like back, so he doesn’t know what to do!” Zayn says back, getting agitated.

“Zayn, I think you’re overreacting.” Louis says, looking at Zayn warily.

“Easy for you to say…” Zayn grumbles.

“Look, I’m just saying...give Liam a couple days. I think he might surprise you.” Louis says, giving Zayn a knowing look.

“Lou’s right, Zayn. Why don’t you try and hang out with him tonight and see what happens?” Harry says, calmly.

“Ugh, fine. But if he keeps avoiding me, I’m crashing here. I can’t stand being in that flat when he won’t even look at me.” Zayn huffs.

“Whatever you say.” Harry laughs.

Zayn stays for a little while longer, taking as much time as he can, putting off the inevitable, before he has to get back home and get started on some reading. He decides he’s going to work in the living room, in the hopes of catching Liam before he can beg off to his room for the night.

Zayn has been settled on the couch, the TV on low for quite some time, when Liam comes back. It looks like he’s been at the gym, something Zayn knows he likes to do when he needs to work something out. Zayn remembers Liam spent a lot of time there when he and Sophia were dealing with some problems that eventually lead to their breakup.

“Hey, Liam,” Zayn calls to him, trying to sound like he isn’t terrified of his response.

“Oh, hey Zayn,” Liam replies, turning around to toe off his shoes and heading down the hall.

“Do you maybe want to watch a movie tonight?” Zayn tries, hoping Liam at least answers.

“Yea, uhm, okay. Let me shower first, yea?” Liam replies, sounding a little unsure.

“Okay, great. I’ll heat up dinner.” Zayn says, relieved.

* * *

Liam

Liam heads into the shower, thankful he has an excuse so he can get his thoughts in order before he spends some time with Zayn. Liam has spent the last couple days thinking about his relationship with Zayn. He’s realized that maybe his viewers were right...he is in love with his best friend.

Once the shock had worn off, it’d been pretty easy for him to see all the signs. He thought back to how he felt about all the other people he’s dated, and while there were some similarities, everything he’s felt for Zayn has been...more. At first, he’d thought it was just because Zayn was such a good friend, but looking back, he realizes it’s because he’s slowly been falling in love with Zayn since the first time they met.

Now that Liam has come to terms with how he feels, he’s still a little bit worried about how Zayn will react to it. He wants to tell him, because even if Zayn doesn’t feel the same way, he wants him to know. He’s just not sure how and when he’s going to tell him. Tonight, he’s just going to try and relax.

Liam gets out of the shower, towel dries his hair, and heads into his bedroom. He throws on a pair of joggers and a hoodie, and wanders into the other room. Zayn is in the kitchen, putting together some food. It looks like some sort of pasta dish. He hasn’t heard Liam come out of his room yet, so Liam takes a second just to admire him.

Liam watches and Zayn pours the pasta into the strainer, and then heads over to the spice cabinet to grab the garlic powder. He reaches up to grab the seasoning, and his t-shirt rides up showing the band of his boxers and a strip of tanned skin. Liam stares and his mouth gets a little dry, when Zayn turns and catches him looking.

“Liam!” Zayn shouts, jumping. “You scared me! I didn’t hear you come out.”

“Sorry, Zee. I got distracted...what did you make?” Liam asks, blushing.

“Just some pasta and vegetables.” Zayn replies, grabbing some bowls and serving them each some food.

Liam grabs some water and they head into the living room to choose a movie. They eventually decide they want to watch the latest Thor movie. They haven’t watched it since they saw it in theatres, so they settle in and get comfortable.

As the movie is playing, Liam can’t help but sneak a few glances and Zayn. He’s never really allowed himself to appreciate how good looking he is. Obviously, he knew Zayn was attractive. It’s just that he never really thought about it before. Now, he takes the time to really...look at him. He loves the way Zayn’s eyes sparkle when he’s following the action on screen. And the way he opens his mouth wide to let out a laugh when he’s shocked by a funny moment in the movie. Or the way his jaw tenses when something suspenseful is happening.

Zayn catches him staring once, but just gives Liam a confused look. Liam just shakes his head and Zayn goes back to the film. About halfway through the movie, Liam grabs the blanket, and settles in. He doesn’t want Zayn to know anything is different, especially after the disappearing act he pulled in the earlier part of the week, so he curls up to him like he always does. For a minute, it feels like Zayn tenses, but Liam just snuggles closer and Zayn appears to relax so Liam settles in.

Liam must have fallen asleep before the movie ended, because he wakes up to Zayn shaking him. He stands up and stretches, the two boys gathering their dirty dishes and bringing them into the kitchen. As they’re heading into their respective rooms, Zayn pauses at his door, and it looks like he might say something to Liam, but he just shakes his head and walks into his room. Liam heads to bed and falls asleep much easier than he had since Sunday night.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn wakes up feeling more settled than he has been lately. Spending the night hanging out with Liam has him feeling a lot better. He’s still not entirely sure if Liam has figured anything out, but at least he seems to be acting like nothing is wrong. Maybe he really wasn’t avoiding him the last few days, and it was just Zayn projecting.

Zayn goes about his morning, making a thermos of coffee and grabbing a Pop Tart to eat when he gets to his first class, and heads out. He got up early enough that he’s not rushing, so he takes a slow walk to campus and into the building. He decides he’s going to go to the library after he finishes his classes, because he has an exam coming up and he wants to get some studying done and with everything going on he can’t focus while at home.

Zayn is camped out at the library for a couple hours, when Harry slams his books on the table, startling him and breaking his concentration.

“Hey, Zee. What’s up?” Harry asks, digging around for something in his backpack. He finds the pen he was presumably searching for, a triumphant look on his face.

“Just studying. I couldn’t concentrate at home,” Zayn explains, eyes going back to the work in front of him.

Harry gets out whatever work that he plans to get started on and they work silently for about fifteen minutes before Harry stops working and starts watching Zayn.

“What?” Zayn asks, not looking up from his notebook.

“How did last night go?” Harry asks, scanning Zayn’s face to figure out how he reacts to the question.

“It was fine.” Zayn responds, refusing to look at Harry.

“Ugh, Zayn,” Harry whines, drawing out the ending of his name.

“What?” Zayn says, letting out a huff of frustration.

Harry just stares at him, until finally Zayn gives in and gives him a short answer.

“When he got home, I asked him to hang out and we watched a movie. Happy?” Zayn answers, exasperated.

“That’s it?”

“Well, yea, what did you expect to happen? I wanted my best friend to stop avoiding me, I wasn’t making any grand declarations.” Zayn explains, giving Harry a look that would cause anyone else to stop talking, but Harry just gives him a bright smile and keeps going.

“So...nothing else? You didn’t talk about anything? Was it awkward?” Harry asks, trying to get more out of Zayn.

“No, we didn’t talk about anything. We just watched Thor. I got a little awkward once but...he did fall asleep on me?” Zayn blushes.

“What!! Tell me more!” Harry says excitedly, eyes lighting up.

“I don’t know. When we finished eating dinner, he just kinda snuggled up to me and I wasn’t going to push him off! It’s not like we’ve ever had an issue sharing space before, so I figured it meant that he either didn’t figure anything out and he wasn’t actually avoiding me and I made it all up, or that he just decided he was okay with it and didn’t want to bring it up and change anything.” Zayn explains, trying to come off unaffected.

“So, you haven’t even considered that there could be any other outcome?” Harry prods.

“No? I mean, why would I?”

Harry shakes his head and turns back to his work, so Zayn goes back to quietly working. Another half hour passes of silent work, when Harry picks up his phone and starts tapping around and scrolling, letting out a huff of laughter every now and again. Zayn doesn’t pay any mind to him, used to Harry’s frequent phone breaks when they work.

Zayn is interrupted by Harry shoving his phone in his face. Zayn looks up at him, and Harry just pushes the phone further, urging Zayn to look at the screen. He picks the phone up and it’s opened to Twitter.

 _LiamVlogs: “_ You were right here all along, it's like you’re my mirror.”

“What?” Zayn asks, handing the phone back to Harry.

“Nothing?” Harry stares, incredulous.

“I don’t know what you expect me to say?” Zayn replies, putting the finishing touches on his work.

“He’s quoting love songs on his Twitter! Look at the quote he picked! It sounds an awful lot to me like he realized he’s in love with someone he's _known a long time_ ,” Harry tells him, practically pulling his hair out.

“Harry, it’s a Justin Timberlake song. He’s listened to that album like once a week since it came out, I highly doubt it means anything,” Zayn says, packing up his books and standing up to leave.

As Zayn turns around to leave, he hears Harry mutter something that sounds suspiciously like “absolutely impossible.” He just keeps walking.

* * *

Liam

Liam is at the gym, just finishing his last set of reps when inspiration strikes. He hurries to the locker room to grab his backpack and his hoodie, and hightails it back to his flat. He thinks he can finally finish the lyrics to the song he’s been trying to write.

When he gets back to the flat, he goes straight to his room, shuts the door, and gets to work. Liam finished a basic melody already, so he grabs his notebook and starts jotting down the lyrics he came up with on the way back from the gym, singing under his breath.

The last few days have been...eye opening. During the movie the other night, Liam fell asleep on Zayn, and since then he’s realized just how much he wishes he could wake up with him every morning. He’s been trying to see how Zayn would react to Liam’s feelings, by being a little flirtier and touchier than usual. He’s not sure if Zayn’s noticed the difference, but he hasn’t pulled away from him, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

Once he’s finished with the lyrics, he takes out his guitar and plays through the song once, and he loves the sound. He decides he wants to use the university recording equipment so he packs up his guitar, grabs his notebook and a hoodie, and heads to campus. He wants to get the song recorded.

*

Liam is on his way out of the studio when his phone rings.

“Hello?” Liam asks, unsure why Louis is calling him.

“Liam!” Louis answers, drawing out the ending of his name in a whine. “Wanna come over? Hazza is at the library with Zayn and I’m bored.”

“Oh, yea sure! I just finished with a song for my assignment. I’ll head over now. Did you eat? I can grab some food?” Liam tells him, already thinking about what he feels like eating.

“Ooh. Yes! Can you grab Chinese?” Louis says.

“Yea, Call and order it from our usual place. I’ll pick it up on my way.” Liam answers.

“Same order as usual?”

“Yep! Text me the time it’ll be done.” Liam tells him, deciding he has time to go back to the flat and drop off his guitar before heading to Louis’.

“You got it. See ya soon, Payno.” Louis says, as he hangs up.

*

It doesn’t take long for Liam to reach the Chinese place that he and his friends have been going to for years. It's about halfway between Liam and Zayn’s place, and Louis and Harry's.

He's right on time, but his order isn't quite ready yet, so Liam bounces on his heels and alternates between replaying his song over and over in his mind, and panicking about his feeling for his best friend.

Liam is relieved when his number is called, and quickly gathers his bags and hurries off to Louis'.

The sound of Louis yelling at the TV greets Liam upon entering his friend's flat, and Liam has never been more thankful for football in his life. As long as the game is on, he doesn't have to think about his feelings. Louis' chaotic energy is just what Liam needs to relax. Unfortunately, the reprieve doesn’t last long.

“So, what are you gonna do about Zayn?” Louis asks, as he picks up his leftovers and brings them into the kitchen.

“Well, I think I’m gonna tell him.” Liam says, as he gets up to follow Louis, carrying his own leftovers. He figures he can take his leftovers home and Zayn can have them if he wants. He takes out his phone to tell Zayn, so he doesn’t have to worry about what he’ll eat when he gets home from the library. He’s been spending more time than usual there studying for exams, so Liam tries to have something ready for him to eat when he gets home.

“Good, I’m getting sick of watching you two dance around each other. It’s annoying.” Louis says, rolling his eyes.

“Shut up, Tommo. We do not. I don’t even know if Zayn feels the same way. I just figure...I’ll never know if I don’t try.” Liam explains, spinning his phone his hand, not meeting Louis’ eyes.

“Liam, seriously? Zayn’s had it bad for years. You have nothing to worry about.” Louis laughs, not unkindly.

“You really think so?” Liam says shyly, looking up hopefully.

“Li, I promise. You’re my best friend. You both are. I’m not going to lie about this, okay? So if you want to do some big declaration, or you wanted to pass him a note under his door...either way I think it’ll work out for you.” Louis tells him, putting a supportive hand on his arm.

“Okay. Okay, yea. I will. I think...I think I have an idea. It’s gonna take me a bit, but...I think I know what I want to do. I gotta go. Thanks Lou.” Liam says, giving Louis a hug and grabbing his leftovers and his hoodie, and heading out the door.

When he gets back to the flat, Zayn is back and watching TV.

“Hey, did you want these now? Or I can put it in the fridge?” Liam says, holding up the container of leftovers, indicating what he’s talking about.

“Yea, I’ll take them. Thanks, Li.” Zayn says, getting up to take the container from Liam so he can put the food onto a plate and heat it up.

Liam watches Zayn as he’s getting his food ready, and he’s mesmerized. He can’t believe it’s taken him so long to see how beautiful he is. Not just in appearance, but in everything. The soft way he moves about the kitchen, lithe body graceful even doing something as mundane as reheating Chinese food; the sharp angles of his face turning into something softer when he catches Liam watching.

When Zayn finishes reheating his dinner, Liam trails him back into the living room and plops on the couch next to him. He decided he’d rather spend some time with Zayn tonight, instead of squirreling away in his room for the night working. He knows what he needs to do, but it can wait a few more hours if it means more time in Zayn’s company. Especially if there’s a possibility Zayn doesn’t react to his declaration the way he hopes he will.

Zayn was watching some reruns of Bob’s Burgers, so they leave that on while Zayn eats. Liam asks him about his work and they spend the rest of the episode chatting until Zayn puts his dish on the coffee table, and leans back on the couch.

“You look stressed, Zee.” Liam says, nudging Zayn with his toe.

“I’m just working a lot. I think I just need to do nothing the rest of the night.” Zayn tells him, shaking his head as if to shake off the worry.

“Alright, come on.” Liam says, motioning for Zayn to cuddle up next to him. “Come in for a cuddle. We’ll watch a movie and just relax. No more work tonight.”

“Okay.” Zayn says softly, crawling next to Liam and curling up to his side.

Liam grabs the remote and chooses a movie from Disney Plus. He picks Olver & Company. He always loved this one, because he enjoyed the soundtrack. What’s better than a singing dog voiced by Billy Joel?

Once he gets comfortable, he pulls Zayn a little closer and drapes a blanket over them. He has his arm over Zayn’s shoulder, and he can’t help but let his mind wander. Zayn fits perfectly under his arm, like they were made to go together. Two puzzle pieces, whose edges perfectly match. He curls his hand into Zayn’s hair, massaging his scalp. Zayn hums in appreciation; he always likes to have his hair played with when he’s stressed. He told Liam once his mom used to do it when he was a kid.

Liam spends most of the movie zoning out, thinking about the boy pressed to his side. He just feels...right. Having Zayn snuggled into his chest, wrapped in blankets in front of a movie. He wants to have this forever, but he wants more. They’ve always been close, but the reality that Zayn might some day find a boyfriend to take the place of Liam, his best friend, is driving home the fact that Liam wants to be that boyfriend.

Liam must drift off to sleep at some point, because when he wakes up the next morning, him and Zayn are still pressed together on the couch. He has a crick in his neck, from sleeping sitting up on the couch, but he can’t help the smile that spreads on his face. He pulls Zayn a little tighter to his chest, before he shakes Zayn awake and they have to get ready for class.

* * *

Zayn

Zayn is walking across campus, headphones in and lost in thought when he feels a tap on his shoulder so he stops and turns around, pulling his headphones out when he sees who was trying to get his attention.

“Zayn! We were calling you for like 5 minutes!” Louis pants, Harry nodding next to him.

“Sorry, I had my headphones in,” Zayn explains, lifting up the headphones as if to prove what he was saying. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, we were heading over to the café when we saw you and figured we’d ask if you’d want to join?” Harry says, ending in a question.

“Yea, sure. I’m done with class for the day anyway.” Zayn answers, shrugging his shoulders. The three boys start to walk while Zayn pauses his music and wraps up his headphones and shoves them into his backpack.

When the boys get to the café, they choose a corner booth. Harry and Zayn sit while Louis heads over to the counter to get their drinks and lunch.

Harry starts explaining to Zayn what he and Louis have planned for the weekend, when Louis returns with a tea for himself, a smoothie for Harry, and a coffee for Zayn. He also puts down a couple sandwiches for the trio to share. They dig in, and Zayn sits back and lets Harry and Louis’ conversation wash over him while he gets lost in thought.

Zayn has always been a little envious of their relationship. He’s never held it against them, but it’s not fair how seemingly easy they had it, when they got together. As an outsider, it felt like they met one minute and the next they were a happy couple. Neither one had to worry about losing their best friend if they found out about their feelings. There was never any worry about unrequited feelings because everything happened so fast.

They didn’t have to worry about their friendship group falling apart because Zayn fell in love with his best friend and he couldn’t hide it and made everything awkward. They didn’t have to be afraid of causing tension in their flat because they have feelings for their roommate. And sure, Zayn knows that Liam would never be mean or hold it against him, but he doesn’t think _he_ could handle it. If Liam found out, how was Zayn supposed to be around him? Knowing that Liam knows and didn’t want him? Having to sit and watch Liam date, and get married, and Zayn never moving on because he’s still best friends with the person he’s in love with?

“Zayn, hey, what’s wrong?” Harry says, nudging Zayn’s arm trying to get his attention. “You look...distracted, man. What’s going on?”

Zayn shakes his head to clear his mind, and takes a sip of coffee to give himself a second to gather his thoughts before trying to answer.

“It’s about Liam, isn’t it?” Harry says, shaking his head.

Zayn’s eyes snap over to Louis, to see his reaction to what Harry said. Zayn knows they’ve probably talked about him, because if you tell Harry something, you essentially tell Louis and vice versa. But Zayn didn’t talk to Louis about it directly, so it’s always a bit weird. Louis just gives him a small encouraging smile and takes a bite of his sandwich.

“I don’t...yea, I guess?” Zayn sighs, looking down at his coffee cup and picking at the cardboard sleeve that always accompanies hot beverages.

“Why? What happened?” Harry asks.

“Nothing happened it’s just...after all those comments on his channel it's like...I’m hyper aware of everything, ya know? And I thought at first they scared him off, like he would try to...distance himself from me? But we’ve fallen asleep cuddled on the couch twice. And it was like last night it was intentional. It’s not like we both fell asleep watching a movie together..but he played with my hair til I fell asleep, ‘cos he knows I was stressed.” Zayn lets out, the two boys listening quietly.

“So...what are you thinking then?” Louis says.

“I don’t know...I guess...why?”

“Why, what?” Harry replies.

“Why isn’t he avoiding me? Why is he doing that?” Zayn sighs, pulling at his hair.

Harry and Louis share an exasperated look before Harry answers, “Zee, did you ever think that Liam feels the same way, and that’s why he isn’t avoiding you...but is...testing the waters? To see how you respond to him?”

Zayn shakes his head and starts tearing the cardboard sleeve to pieces. “No, because that’s ridiculous. Liam doesn’t...he wouldn’t like me like that.”

“ _You_ are absolutely ridiculous. Zayn, why not? Why wouldn’t he?” Harry asks him, sounding offended that Zayn would think anyone wouldn’t love him.

“Because...when we met he was already dating someone so I was automatically just a friend. He’s not going to change his mind.”

“Zayn, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and I say that with love.” Louis tells him. “I promise you, that is the furthest thing from the truth. Just...pay attention to Liam and don’t close yourself off to the idea that he might feel the same way, okay?”

“Yea...okay…” Zayn says, getting up to throw away his trash. “I’m gonna head back to the room, I think I want to take a nap.”

“Okay, Zee. We’re here if you need us, ya know. But, I really think you’re worrying for nothing.” Louis tells him.

Zayn uses the walk back to his flat to think everything over. By the time he’s home, he’s worked himself into such a state he immediately drops his backpack on the couch, heads into his room, changes into a clean t-shirt and pair of joggers, and throws himself onto the bed to go to sleep. Overthinking every little thing is taking its toll, he’s exhausted.

* * *

Liam

As soon as Liam finished class for the day, he headed directly to the music department and finished mixing the song he recorded. He thinks it's perfect. Not only is it good enough to submit for a grade, but it summarizes how he feels. He just hopes it’s good enough for the one person he wants to impress with it.

He gets back to the flat and sees Zayn’s backpack on the couch, so he knows he’s home. He walks down the hall and notices Zayn’s door is shut so he lightly knocks and calls out to him to see if he answers, and when he doesn’t get an answer he slowly pushes the door open to see what he’s up to. When he sees him asleep, he takes a minute to just...admire him.

Zayn shifts a little in his sleep and snuggles closer to his pillow and Liam’s heart swells. He can’t believe he never realised how he felt but now that he knows, he has to tell him. It hurts too much to think about the possibility of losing Zayn to someone else. Liam wants to be able to come home from class and cuddle onto the bed with him for a nap. He wants to be able to wake up with Zayn’s face pressed to his neck, little puffs of air tickling him. Liam wants to be able to say thank you for dinner with a kiss, instead of a smile.

Liam slowly, quietly closes the door and heads back to his room. He sits down and starts working. He has an idea for a way to tell Zayn how he feels, but he wants it to be special. He pulls out his computer and starts sifting through and organizing clips he’s recorded over the past few years.

While Liam is digging through hours and hours of recordings, he hears Zayn come out of his room and go into the bathroom. He takes a glance at the clock, and notes he’s been working for a couple hours and it’s time for dinner. He has a good bunch of clips selected so he should be able to take an hour or two to have dinner and maybe watch television for a little bit before he finishes working.

Liam makes sure all his work is saved and stands up from his chair. He stretches, his back popping from being hunched over his desk for so long, and he heads out to the kitchen.

“Zaynie, are you up?” Liam calls out.

“Yea, I’m up.” Zayn says groggily, running his hand through his hair and then down his face. He walks over to Liam, and Liam has to clench his hands to stop himself from reaching up to smooth his thumb over the pillow crease left on Zayn’s cheek.

“I’m taking a break from work and figured I’d make something to eat. You hungry?” Liam asks, turning around to look in the freezer to see what he can make. He finds some chicken fingers and fries, and figures they’ll be easy enough.

“Yea, thanks Li.” Zayn says, getting a glass of water.

Liam gets the food and throws it into the air fryer, sets the timer and sits at the table while they wait for the food to cook. They start discussing how much they love the air fryer, which happens every time they use it.

“I’m so glad we got that thing. You don’t have to wait for it to heat up, you don’t need to add oil, and everything is crispy!” Zayn laughs, like they haven’t had the same conversation dozens of times.

“I know. It certainly makes cooking easier most days.” Liam says as the food ‘dings’ and is ready to be taken out. Zayn gets up and grabs some dishes and their chosen condiments so they can eat. Liam starts plating the food, and Zayn grabs them each a soda and they head into the living room to watch television.

“What do you want to watch?” Zayn asks, getting himself comfortable on one end of the couch.

“Just something short, I think. I still have some work to do and I don’t want to get sucked into a movie.” Liam answers.

“Okay, sounds good.” Zayn says, settling on an episode of Chopped that’s playing on television.

They watch the show, while trading comments about the contestants and what they choose to do.

“He didn’t even transform the pork rinds! All he did was grate it over the top of the beef. That’s lazy!” Liam yells at the television. The contestant he liked was already kicked off, for a stupid reason in his opinion, so he’s just mad about everything now.

“He should have been kicked off in the last round because all he made was tacos. Everyone makes tacos for the appetizer basket. That’s so boring.” Zayn agrees.

They continue watching the show, chatting during the commercials and arguing with every point Geoffrey Zakarian makes when he’s judging the food. When the episode ends, they clear up their dishes and head into the kitchen to clean and put them away.

“That was stupid. GZ is so annoying. Alex is a way better judge, I wish she’d be on every episode.” Liam grumbles, while he’s cleaning up.

Zayn just laughs in response and shakes his head, but Liam knows he agrees. They finish putting the dishes away and Liam tells Zayn he has more work to do and heads back into his room to keep working.

It’s 1 am by the time Liam is finished, but he’s really happy with what he’s put together. He just hopes that it works. He curls up in his bed, his mind going over all the possible reactions to telling Zayn how he feels. He knows it’s a risk, but it’s a risk worth taking. He doesn’t want to lose the chance to be with Zayn, and he’s trusting his viewers to have steered him right.

*

The next day seems to drag by and go by quickly at the same time. It’s Friday, so the day usually drags, but he’s just ready to tell Zayn. As soon as he’s finished with his class for the day, he runs back to the flat and waits for Zayn to get home.

After what feels like hours later, Zayn finally comes in. Liam takes a deep breath and steels himself for what he’s about to do.

* * *

Zayn

_Liam: Please watch this :)_

Zayn opens his phone to a text message from Liam with a link to a YouTube video in it. He sends Liam a quick text telling him he’s watching it now, and goes to his room and sits on the bed.

It looks like an unlisted video from Liam’s own channel. That’s unusual...it’s only Friday and Liam’s never had him watch a video before posting.

The video starts out with a song playing, slow strumming on a guitar and a video clip of what looks like Liam and Zayn from the comic convention the first year they met. Then, a voice starts singing. It’s Liam’s voice, Zayn realizes.

_I figured it out_

_I figured it out from black and white_

_Seconds and hours_

_Maybe they had to take some time_

As the video plays, more and more clips of Zayn and Liam are spliced together.

_You and I_

_We don't wanna be like them_

_We can make it 'til the end_

_Nothing can come between_

_You and I_

_Not even the Gods above_

_Can separate the two of us_

_No, nothing can come between_

_You and I_

Zayn watches the video play, listening to Liam singing a song about two people who are meant to be together over clips of their friendship. The video ends showing a black screen with only two words displayed: To Zayn. He sits, staring at the phone. He hears a soft knock on the door and looks up and sees Liam.

“So?” Liam asks shyly, walking into Zayn’s room and sitting next to him on the bed.

“What? Liam, did you write that about...us?” Zayn asks, looking up and meeting Liam’s eyes. He can feel his eyes tearing up so he reaches up to wipe them. As he’s bringing his hand back down to his lap, Liam grabs it and strokes the back of his hand with his thumb.

“Yea, Zayn...I, it took me a while, but I figured it out. I don’t know what took me so long but, I...I love you, Zee.” Liam says earnestly, biting his lip when Zayn doesn’t immediately respond.

“Li…” Zayn says, taking his hands from Liam’s and putting them on Liam’s cheeks. He looks into Liam’s eyes, scanning his face like he’s trying to commit it to memory. Then he gently pulls Liam closer and finally touches his lips to Liam’s.

The kiss is like everything Zayn hoped it would be. Liam’s lips are soft, the kiss is short but tender. It’s perfect. He feels Liam put his hands on his hips, before Zayn slightly pulls away, resting his forehead on Liam’s.

“I love you, too, Li.” Zayn breathes out. Liam giggles and pulls Zayn closer to him and kisses him a few more times, before Zayn pulls away again. “How did you…”

“Figure it out?” Liam laughs, while Zayn nods his head. “Uhm, my viewers, actually? They just kept pointing out our interactions and they were so convinced we were dating I just...I did some thinking and got a slap or two from Louis.”

Zayn laughs, knowing exactly how that goes. His hands are still on Liam’s cheeks, he’s started stroking his cheeks while they talk, and he can feel Liam rubbing circles on his hips with his thumbs.

“I’m glad you did…” Zayn whispers, biting his lip.

“Me too,” Liam breathes. “Zayn would you...want to go on a date?”

“Yea,” Zayn laughs, like he would say no after all of that.

“Tonight?” Liam asks, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Okay.” Zayn smiles. Giving Liam a fast peck on the lips before kicking him out of his room so he can get ready.

He spends much longer than he should trying to pick out an outfit. It’s not like Liam hasn’t already seen Zayn in every combination of clothing he possibly could, but he still wants to put in enough effort. He has to pick an outfit that looks good and shows Liam that he cares about their date but Liam knows him so well he doesn’t want to pick an outfit that Liam would know isn’t him. He’s trying to walk a fine line between too much and not enough effort. He eventually decides on a red long sleeved henley with black skinny jeans and his Doc Martens. He likes the way the red looks on him, and you can’t go wrong with black jeans.

Once he finally decides on an outfit, he heads into the bathroom to take a shower before starting the process of doing his hair up in a quiff.

* * *

Liam

Liam is standing in his room staring into his closet picking out an outfit to wear. He knows it might have been a little fast to ask Zayn out tonight, but he didn’t want to wait. What was the point, really, when they already lived together? He already texted the guys to let them know not to expect them at the pub that night. He figures if Zayn wants to go after, they can but he’s hoping to spend the whole night just the two of them.

After much deliberation, Liam finally decided on a pair of fitted black pants and a tucked in white t-shirt and boots. He’ll grab one of his jackets on the way out, because he thinks it’ll get chilly.

Once he hears Zayn get out of the shower, he sneaks into the bathroom so he can get ready. When he gets out of the shower, he realises he never told Zayn a time, so he figures he’ll just play it by ear. When he’s putting the finishing touches on his outfit, he calls out to Zayn to find out if he’s ready to go. When Zayn answers he is, Liam tells him to wait in his bedroom.

Liam straightens out his back and lightly knocks on Zayn’s door frame. When Zayn stands up to look at Liam, he loses his breath.

“You look...wow,” Liam breathes.

“Liam, why are you knocking? The door is open.” Zayn laughs.

“I wanted to pick you up for our date,” he grins.

“You’re a dork,” Zayn says, hiding a smile.

“Ready to go?”

“Yea.”

“Grab a coat, so you don’t get cold.” Liam reminds him, before they head out the door.

“You look great, too, by the way.” Zayn says as they start walking into the center of town. “So, where are we headed?”

“I was thinking we could walk around downtown and just hang out, maybe grab dinner and ice cream?” Liam says, bumping into Zayn while they walk.

They spend the next couple hours walking around and talking, stopping in for a slice of pizza and finally getting ice cream. It’s a crisp night, but not too cold that they can’t enjoy their frozen dessert.

They’re finishing their cones and heading back to their flat, when Liam reaches out and tangles their fingers together. Zayn squeezes his hand and Liam can’t help the huge grin that breaks out on his face. He turns to look at Zayn who catches his eye and grins back.

“I was thinking we could maybe watch a movie when we get home? I’m not ready to end our date.” Zayn says.

“That sounds perfect.” Liam answers, lifting up their joined hands to kiss Zayn’s knuckles.

When they get back to their flat, they both decide to change into more comfortable clothes for movie watching. Once they’re both changed into t-shirts and joggers, they cuddle on the couch and pick a film to watch. Liam puts his arm around Zayn and pulls him close, Zayn resting his head on Liam’s chest. Liam feels his heart swell, squeezing Zayn and pressing a kiss to his head.

When the movie ends and it’s time to go to bed, Liam’s not ready to let go of Zayn. He watches the end credits scroll, enjoying the feeling of Zayn pressed against him, listening to his even breaths. Zayn fell asleep right before the movie ended, so Liam lets him sleep for a little while longer until he gets uncomfortable and has to move.

“Zee, hey baby, let’s go to bed, it's late.” Liam whispers, shaking Zayn awake.

Zayn grumbles, getting up and heading down the hall while Liam turns off the television, checks that the door is locked, and turns out the lights. When he finishes in the bathroom and heads into his bedroom, he finds Zayn already in his bed.

Zayn must feel him watching him from the doorway, because he hears “Li, come to bed, I wanna cuddle.” So he turns out the light, shuts the door, and climbs in bed. As soon as he gets under the covers, Zayn shuffles closer and presses himself into Liam’s chest. Liam wiggles closer to get himself comfortable before he sighs and pulls Zayn even closer.

“Goodnight, Leeyum.” Zayn mumbles into Liam’s chest.

“Goodnight, Zee,” Liam whispers back, pressing a kiss into his head and taking a deep breath, smelling Zayn’s shampoo.

*Two weeks Later*

_LiamVlogs: Check out my new video where I learned Eitan Bernath’s recipe for a perfect date night meal. I almost burned my flat down, but I think it was a hit!_

Liam and Zayn sit together on the couch, watching Liam’s subscribers' reaction to his latest video. The video is mostly Liam mucking about in the kitchen, with the help of a popular social media chef, but the two decided that since they got together thanks to the comments of Liam’s subscribers, the least they could do is let them see Zayn’s reaction to trying the food Liam made.

_**Cayson Hunter** 5 minutes ago_

_WHATTTT!!! I KNEW IT GUYS!!!_

_**Flora Nixon** 2 minutes ago_

_ASDKFJAWGASDGJAWR_

The two boys laugh as the comments are practically gibberish, but they seem to be responding well. Liam pulls up his Twitter to watch the replies coming in, much the same as the YouTube comments.

_LiamVlogs: Thank you guys for all the support! Zayn and I are loving your comments!_

Liam posts a final tweet with a photo of his and Zayn’s clasped hands from date night, and he closes out the app, pulling Zayn closer and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.

“Love you.” Liam whispers into Zayn’s lips.

“Love you, too.” Zayn answers, deepening the kiss for a bit before pulling Liam down to cuddle for the rest of the afternoon.


End file.
